Sequoia won't open Photos library from external drive

[danpass]

At the moment I'm copying my photos library to the internal drive to see if that works.

Thoughts? Next steps?

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2020 Mac Mini M1 16gb/1tb
Samsung T7 Touch 2tb external drive

This setup worked fine with the prior Mac OS

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[danpass]

Update:

Exact same library works fine when opened from the internal drive ....

I can find the external file but the moment I try to open it from there it, "Switch Library?"

bam .... crashes. It used to show an error message, Unable to Open, something like that.



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[Bigwaff]

Helps to post your Mac model and year. Also post detailed specs of your external HD.

 

[danpass]

op updated (mac info also in sig line)

 

[Bigwaff]

Using Samsung software or encryption with T7?

 

[danpass]

Using Samsung software or encryption with T7?

Not using the Samsung software before or now

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[Slartibart]

just to be clear: how do you try to open it? another side note: the T7 uses APFS or another file system?

 

[danpass]

I had formatted the T7 with Mac OS Extended

I originally tried opening from within Photos, when it was the System Photo Library, as usual but no go.

Then I tried clicking on the file directly, which opened Photos and right into an error window

Since the Sequoia update clearly broke something the Photos app it would crash immediately, no option to find the folder.

So I copied the photos file to the internal drive and it works fine in that case.

Trying to re-open the same file, from the Photos window, from the external drive, just brings up an error message.

 

[Slartibart]

2 things you can try:

• import the library the Apple way. Quit Photos. Press and hold the Option key, then click the Photos icon in the Dock. In the Choose Library dialogue, select the library you want to import photos into, then click Choose Library.
• Repair the library

In any case: have a look into the Photos crash log in the Console. If needed post it here. What is the error message you mentioned exactly?

 

[Slartibart]

instead of »edit« I used »reply« to my own comment … please ignore 🤣🤪

 

[danpass]

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Ok, despite the OS process restarting itself, I went ahead and did a manual restart.

Now the external file, SAME EXACT FILE, SAME EXACT DRIVE ..... works fine, including being able to set it as System Photo Library again.

That is a very MS Windows sort of thing that I thought I had gotten away from.

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[ileencuccaro]

I have been trying to open my library's forever now. I have 3 on external hard drives . I had one opened last year with help with apple tech support we finally got one opened and all was well now when I try again the library opened but not the newest one, was 6 years old and missing all my albums. All I want is too have all my photos in one spot to keep organized. there are like 26,000 of them